Month: May 2020

by Josh Vande Hey

For I have come to down from heaven, not to do My own will but the will of Him who sent Me.

JOHN 6:38, ESV

As summertime rolls in, corporations everywhere are usually getting ready for an influx of new faces. It is intern season! As an intern, I remember some of my first mentors (both in life and professionally) – and those that are still teaching me today. There’s something special about having someone bought into your life so deeply that they truly care about the outcome. It’s pretty simple but so important. Not nearly as often do we remember how much those seasoned veterans are learning too but having two unique perspectives collaborating on the same goal is powerful!

Believe it or not, Jesus did (and is doing) this same thing during His ministry. We wouldn’t often consider that Jesus was “mentored” in any way, but during Jesus’ time on earth He clearly imparted that He was not on earth to do His own will – but rather He was here to do the will of the Father (John 6:38). We see Him being directed by God as he asks questions and spends time with God. We see this up until some of the last moments before His death when Jesus is pleading with God for another way but ultimately submits to the Father’s will instead (Luke 22:42).

Jesus taught His disciples to live just like He did by calling them to just “follow Me” (Matthew 4:18-20). This was so simple. He didn’t put any additional requests on them. He didn’t say that they were only allowed to follow Him if they performed certain rituals, straightened themselves up, or said certain words – it was just “follow Me”. If I dug a little deeper, I would suggest that He was also conveying, “Please just come spend time with Me. Just follow Me and I will do the rest. Learn from me. Ask me questions. Observe as much as you can. I just love you and I will take care of everything else.”

After years together, He then gives them a final command – in the same way I have taught you about God’s love, go teach others and invite them to be loved by Me through you! (Matthew 28:16-20). Today, we often call this style of relationship “discipleship.”

In the Western church, “discipleship” has become a bit of a buzz word. It has become so popular that I sometimes wonder if we’ve lost its simplicity. Churches and authors often describe discipleship as programs, techniques, or skills. It’s almost as if some believe there’s a way for us to become a “next level Christian.” Jesus’ focus, however, was on following Him together in obedience and as we are with Him, He changes us. The call of Jesus is to abide with Him, and as we do the Holy Spirit fills us with the desire, strength, and direction to live for Him. Being a disciple isn’t something we add on top of our lives, it is the person He calls us to become!

So today I want to ask you, how’s your discipleship? How are your relationships are doing – are they all pointed toward the same goal? It takes true authenticity and humility to allow others to speak life into your world – are you willing to try? It also takes a supreme trust in His guidance to speak life into another’s world – are you willing to try? My prayer for my own life, is that I can simply obey “follow Me.”

by Rebecca Zickert

And God said, “Let there be light” and there was light. God saw the light was good and he separated the light from the darkness. God called the light day and the darkness he called night. And there was evening and there was morning — the first day.

GENESIS 1: 3-5

“There was evening and there was morning…” These words from the first chapter of Genesis radically disrupted the rhythm of my mind. It removed me from a rut from which I so desperately tried to be released for much of my life. In reading this chapter it dawned on me, He didn’t say “there was morning and then evening.”

My weekdays are often a rush, beginning with an alarm, perhaps a few hits of the snooze and then a dash into the new day. I have attempted to wake when there is still quietness in the house and before my mind haunts me with the “to-do” list, but as much as I’d like to be a morning person, I seem to fail again and again.

“There was evening and there was morning…” God’s words. Not man’s. We are taught and try to live knowing God’s words are for our good. They are better than any other ways this world could offer. Yet the patterns of this world tend to take over. Evening, in the book of Genesis, came before morning on the first through the sixth days, and on the seventh day He rested and “blessed” it.

As I pondered these words this January, I decided to see if God really intended a new day to begin at sunset. The following Sunday, as the sun was getting low in the sky, I began to feel excitement as my new day (Monday) was moments away. Because of my new thinking, the beautiful thing is my Monday did not begin like a typical Monday with a frantic, dreaded rush. Instead, it was ushered in with a prayer in the quietness of the evening and downtime with family, which was followed by a long eight-hour rest awakening to the last 10 hours of my Monday. What a difference! Oh, how I loved and looked forward to the setting of the sun each day and knowing the world’s night was my next day’s beginning.

I’m discovering that a new rhythm does not just flawlessly happen. To alter the time my brain views as the start of a day and to practice beginning a new day while everyone else is still in yesterday requires new, transformed thinking. I offer myself grace because I don’t want to go back to my old pattern, and I enjoy the peace in this new way.

As I came to the end of my first week, I knew that in Genesis 2:2-3, God rested from all of His work. I wondered, “Could I, too, practice a day of rest (Sabbath)?” It would mean I’d have to fight the urge of finishing up all that didn’t get finished. I worked excitedly through my Saturday during the daylight knowing that as soon as the sun dipped below the horizon, my work would cease. When it did, I exhaled. What was done was done and what was unfinished would remain so over the next 24 hours.

I went to my room and began my Sabbath by candlelight, in the darkness of the beginning of my day. I read a passage from Douglas Kaine McKelvey’s Every Moment Holy. * (I replaced “morning” with evening and “yesterday” with last week):

Meet me, O Christ, in this stillness of morning.
Move me, O Spirit, to quiet my heart.
Mend me, O Father, from yesterday’s harms.
From the discords of yesterday, resurrect my peace.
From the discouragement of yesterday, resurrect my hope.
From the weariness of yesterday, resurrect my strength.
From the doubts of yesterday, resurrect my faith.
From the wounds of yesterday, resurrect my love.
Let me enter this new day (week), aware of my need,
and awake to your grace, O Lord, Amen.

I had to fight to keep the Sabbath free of work. My mind can be very persuasive, but the fight was so worth it. The peace I received by following God’s Word seemed to spread to those around me, and even when it didn’t, His peace kept me grounded. I was awestruck by that day, wondering why I hadn’t done this before. It was a sweet gift but I still wondered, “This couldn’t happen every Sunday, could it?”

A time for God.
A time for family.
A time to rest.
A time to rejuvenate.

I’m going into my fourth month and I have to say, I never want to miss a Sabbath again. It truly is given by God to us for a reason. It is His gift to us and is so sweet if we embrace it. Life is full of challenges, whether it’s Monday or Sunday, but I have yet to experience a Sabbath that didn’t end at sunset with me in awe of how wonderful God’s blessings are if we choose to accept them.

*Every Moment Holy – New Liturgies for Daily Life © 2017 Douglas McKelve

by Pastor Joe Pullen

And Jesus said to them, “Follow Me, and I will make you become fishers of men.” And immediately they left their nets and followed Him. And going on a little farther, He saw James the son of Zebedee and John his brother, who were in their boat mending the nets. And immediately He called them, and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired servants and followed Him.
MARK 1:17-20, ESV

Ever wanted desperately to change something about yourself? Ever wanted to have a life that was far bigger than you ever imagined it could be? Great news! Today’s Scripture passage speaks about how Jesus invites us to become our fullest, best self so we can join Him in His mission to save the world from sin and evil.

Peter and Andrew were as ordinary as they come: just lowly fishermen trying to eke out a living. They were disciples of John the Baptist and saw the baptism of Jesus. Then one day, as they were fishing, Jesus came and invited them to be His disciples by saying, “Follow Me and I will make you fishers of men.” Shortly after Peter and Andrew said yes to Jesus, Jesus invites James and his brother John to follow, and they also say yes.

Jesus’ invitation demonstrates that our relationship with God is one of mutual accountability and differing roles. As disciple-makers, we need to know that when making disciples as Jesus did, there is my part, God’s part, and their part. In this invitation, Jesus the disciple-maker does His part by inviting the men to follow. Their part was starting to follow Jesus. God’s part (via the Holy Spirit) was creating the desire to follow Jesus – and then changing them while they did. It is in the act of following Jesus that the Holy Spirit changes us to become more like Jesus.

Jesus is invitational and He is King. As King, He had the authority to expect those He called to respond fully and immediately. For both pairs of brothers in the scriptures above, their response when Jesus called was “immediately they left their nets and followed Him.” The Holy Spirit helped them see Jesus as King and worthy of fully abandoning their possessions, their work, and their family to follow Jesus without delay.

I want to be more like those men. Peter showed real guts when he left it all behind and went all in with Jesus. Andrew showed through his actions that he knew how fortunate he was to be called by the King. James and John said goodbye to their dad so they could pursue Jesus. Imagine what our church’s impact could be, imagine the joy and fulfillment in your life, and imagine what your relationships would be like if we all consistently responded to Jesus with immediacy and fullness!

Lord, give us hearts like these first disciples to respond to You immediately and completely whenever You speak to us. Help us see You as these first disciples did – to look at You and hear Your words – and know that You are worth all that we have. Give us boldness to live the kingdom purpose You have for us as You change us into fishers of men. In Christ’s name, Amen.

by Andrea Sloma

The LORD looks down from heaven on all mankind to see if there are any who understand, and who seek God. All have turned away, all have become corrupt; there is no one who does good, not even one.

PSALM 14:2-3, NIV

The beginning of Psalm 14 can sound pretty disheartening and maybe resonates with our own feelings about what we see around us. We’ve all had those days. The kind where you look around and see nothing but brokenness and despair. You lay your head on the pillow at night and wonder, “Is there anyone or anything good left in this world?”

Like David, the author of this psalm, you are not alone in your questions.

Psalm 14 starts off with David talking about people who say, “There is no God,” and who go about life doing whatever they want. Yet, in the midst of what is turning out to be a pretty discouraging passage of scripture, God offers a glimpse of hope.

But there they are, overwhelmed with dread, for God is present in the company of the righteous.

PSALM 14:5, NIV

What this verse tells us is that even though someone can get so caught up in living a corrupt, evil life, completely devoid of Christ, they still cannot escape the presence of Christ. Not because they are looking for it, but because of those who choose to walk in it.

Part of our call as Christians is to draw people to the presence of God in this broken and fallen world. God is full of grace and mercy. He wishes to enter the lives of everyone, even those who have turned their back on Him, even those who deny Him. People are not the enemy but instead the battleground that we fight the enemy on. For some people, their only encounter with Christ and the Gospel may be what they witness in you. There are people this week who will only see God if they see Him in you; if they see Him in your actions, if they hear Him in your words.

Be the salt and light of the world.

MATTHEW 5:13-16, NKJ

Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.

MATTHEW 5:16, NKJ

Dear God, there are so many people in this world who have chosen to live life their own way and do not seek You. It can be so disheartening to see the evil and corruption in this world. Yet Psalm 14 ends with a promise of salvation and restoration for Your people. You always have the victory in the end, Lord. Thank you for never leaving us without the hope of our future victory in You. I pray that we draw people to your presence; in our home, our work, and our community. May our life be a testimony to Your goodness, mercy and redemption. Let others be so captivated by our light that they choose to seek a life of surrender and obedience to You.
Amen.